The colors can be divided into two broad categories: Natural dyes and artificial dyes.

Natural dyes often referred to as vegetable dyes, though many of these were obtained from animal and mineral sources.

Despite the introduction of good quality synthetic dyes, which are reasonably cheap and plentiful the master dyers in Persia prefer the use of natural dyes.

Natural dyes produce a subtle beauty of tone that has never been equaled by the use of even the finest synthetic dyes. The natural dyes come from roots, flowers, leaves, fruits, and barks of plants, or animal sources such as cochineal and mineral sources such as red soils.

The natural dyes had the advantage of being found in abundance in the natural environments.

Red is obtained from the roots of the madder plant (Rubia tinctorum) and also from the crushed bodies of female insects of the coccus cacti genus.

Yellow is made from the reseda plant, vine leaves, and pomegranate skins. Blue is derived from Indigo plants.

Persians are reputed to have had a long history of developing these natural dyes that were fast and attractive.

Plutarch, the famous historian, while describing the victories of Alexander of Macedonia talks of the purple-colored fabrics which were looted by his soldiers and writes: "the fastness of the colors and the durability of the fabrics woven in Persian are because they made use a mixture of honey and wax ..."

About 120 different kinds of colored plants have been identified in Persia.

From the leaves, bark, roots, flowers, and fruits of this plant, various colors are obtained.

Additionally, some natural dyes are extracted from lichens and alga.

These lichens grow in the damp soil near the sea, in forests, and on the rocks.

These are collected and then dried, before being used as dyes. With a combination of substances derived from these lichens and various mordants, different shades of colors like brown, yellow and orange are obtained.